


The Visitors

by M_Moonshade



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Family Drama, Gen, threats and suggestions of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 05:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1929249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_Moonshade/pseuds/M_Moonshade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Hans returns from Arendelle, his brothers come to see him.</p><p>Well, some of them do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Visitors

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling off my game, so I opened my blog up to writing prompts. My friend Tane said: "Can you write a Frozen fic? Something about Hans’ return to the southern isles following the aftermath of the movie?"
> 
> Forgive any badness, because this really was written during a major slump of writers' block.

A faster messenger must have arrived in the Southern Isles before Hans’ ship did. That was why there were already bars over his windows. That was why the locks on his doors only opened from the outside.

It couldn’t possibly be that they were expecting something like this from him. It couldn’t be that they’d intended to lock him up from the beginning.

No. It must have been a messenger. That had to be it.

 

1.

Andreas steepled his fingers. He looked disappointed— but then, that was pretty much the default expression on the eldest brother’s face. 

"You’ve put us in an unfortunate situation," he said quietly. His voice was always quiet, because he didn’t need to raise it. Andreas was always heard. "We’re on the brink of war with Arendale. And that means more than it did a few years ago. This isn’t about trade anymore, Hans. I’ve heard the reports of what Queen Elsa can do. We can’t afford to anger her a second time." 

His lips formed a thin line.

"If she’d called for it, we would have executed you."

 

2.

Bendt laid back on the high-backed armchair before the fireplace, one leg thrown over the armrest. 

"You blew it, brother," he said. "Coulda had it all. Coulda been in-laws with Queen Crazy up there. But nope. Had to show your hand." He shook his head.

"What was I supposed to do?" Hans asked, pacing before the fire. "I thought she was going to die. She asked me for True Love’s Kiss!"

"You knew her all of… what, three days? And you were already planning to cheat on her? You’d have been true enough for it to work, right? So you didn’t think you could at least have given it a shot?"

Hans rolled his eyes. “It’s not that simple.”

"Sure it is," Bendt said with a shrug. "With women, it always is."

 

3.

Cai didn’t say much at all.

He just laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

 

4.

Dagfinn took pity on his brother and brought in a tafl board. They would play for hours, exchanging quiet conversation about nothing at all.

Sometimes Hans wanted to flip over the board and shout at his brother, but he kept his silence. He didn’t want to lose the distraction.

 

5.

Esben took up Hans’ cause as his own. He kept coming back to sit in the high-backed chair before the fire and make Hans repeat his story, fishing for details about entrapment and insanity and self-defense, and then he’d parade the countryside, exaggerating those details a hundred times over. Hans was the victim here, he shouted to the rooftops. He was only trying to protect the people of Arendelle from their unfit rulers. 

It was flattering at first. But Esben kept gnawing at it like a starving dog at a bone, dredging up those few days over and over and over again. All Hans wanted to do was forget. 

 

6.

Frej looked him in the eye. “Did you love her?” 

"Does it matter?" Hans asked. 

"If it doesn’t matter, then there’s no reason for you not to tell me. Did you love her?" 

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I need to understand," Frej said. "I need to know you’re not a complete monster."

"And what would make it better?" Hans snapped, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "That I lied to her to get the throne? Or that I loved her and realized that it wouldn’t ever be enough to save her? Which would make you happy, brother?" 

 

7.

Gudbrand wasn’t allowed into the well-furnished prison of Hans’ room. Every so often Hans could hear him shouting at the guards— or fighting them, when he got drunk enough— to let him pass, to execute the slime that wasn’t fit to be called his brother. 

"If he’s my blood, then I’ll see it spilt on the ground. He’s shamed us! He’s shamed all of us!" 

When Gudbrand got dragged away— he always got dragged away in the end— Hans was never sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.

 

8.

Henrik didn’t come to see him. 

 

9.

Neither did Ingvar.

 

10.

Nor did Jannik. 

Hans suspected they were just pretending he was invisible again.

 

11.

"I don’t understand," Kjeld admitted softly. "Why did you do it?"

"Does it matter?" Hans asked. 

"Yes. It does." When Hans didn’t answer, he tried fishing for answers. "Were you really that desperate for the throne? For a wife? For a place to belong? Were you trying to prove something?"

Kjeld was notoriously bad at fishing.

 

12.

"I sympathize," said Loke, standing far from the fire. Only half his face was lit by the flame; the rest was shrouded in shadow. "But you were sloppy, Hans. Never brag about your plans until they’ve come to fruition."

"Is that why you’re here?" Hans asked. "Because your plans have come to fruition?"

"I’m here to make you an offer," Loke said, and he stepped forward. Even as he approached the fire, it did nothing to illuminate his face. The light on his right side just grew brighter, and the shadows on his left grew a deeper, darker black.

He pulled a crystal vial from his jacket and placed it on the table at Hans’ side. The liquid inside was clear, held tightly inside by a cork and a wax seal.

"If there’s anything as prolific as True Love, it’s a Happy Ending. Would you like me to give you yours?" 


End file.
